You’ve probably been told to shoot RAW. But do you actually know what’s inside a RAW file that makes it worth the storage space? This episode gets into the numbers — and once you see them, the case for RAW becomes impossible to argue with.
What you’ll learn:
Bit depth is exponential, not additive. A standard JPEG is 8-bit, giving you 256 brightness levels per colour channel and roughly 16.7 million possible colours total. A 14-bit RAW file gives you 16,384 levels per channel — over 4 trillion possible colours. That gap is invisible straight out of camera. It becomes very visible the moment you start editing.
We cover the staircase effect — what happens to smooth gradients in low bit-depth files when you push exposure or shadows in post. Those gaps between brightness levels stretch apart and become visible as banding: ugly, digital-looking stripes in what should be a smooth sky or a softly lit wall. In a 14-bit file, the steps are fine enough that normal editing simply can’t pull them apart.
We also break down the difference between lossless and lossy RAW compression. Lossless compression reduces file size without discarding any data — think of it like a ZIP file for your image. Lossy compression makes a permanent, one-time decision to discard some sensor data at capture. For many shots you’ll never notice. For scenes with subtle gradients or heavy shadow recovery, you might.
Key takeaways:
- The RAW advantage isn’t visible at capture — it’s editing headroom for when you need it
- Banding is what happens when you stretch a file that doesn’t have enough tonal steps
- Lossless compression is the smart default — lossy is a conscious trade-off, not a setting to stumble into
This week’s homework — The Stress Test: shoot the same scene as a JPEG and a 14-bit RAW. Push the exposure slider to +4 in your editing software and lift the shadows all the way. Watch the JPEG fall apart. Watch the RAW hold together.
Do you want more episodes like this one? Let us know on Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, or Reddit and we will make sure to keep them as a part of our regular offerings.
